Name: Caitlin KingAge: 24Hometown: Atlanta, Ga.Connection to your teammate: Best FriendsCurrent occupation: Early childhood special education teacherDescribe what you do: I teach special education to children with mild to severe learning disabilities. Favorite hobbies: Working out, traveling, going out with my friends and anything outdoors. 3 words to describe you: Competitive, loyal and fun. What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? Earning a full soccer scholarship to Auburn University and having a successful four year career as a player. What famous person reminds you of yourself? No one famous reminds me of myself, but my siblings and I all have a lot in common.What famous person reminds you of your teammate? Kelly Ripa because she is super fit, energetic and always a crowd pleaser.What scares you most about traveling? The airline losing my bags. What excites you most about traveling? Exploring, discovering and learning about the new places we are about to travel to!Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: Brittany is more outspoken and quicker to make decisions while I am more reserved and take the time to look at the big picture before coming to a conclusion. We will have to learn to combine these traits to be an effective team. Pet peeve about your teammate: Love Brittany’s laugh, but sometimes the snort just has to go!What country and place would you most like to visit and why? I would love to go to South Africa on Safari. I love exploring the outdoors and new, exciting adventures.What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other than winning one million bucks)? To prove that blonde girls can also have brains, strength and be mentally tough.

Name: Brittany FletcherAge: 25Hometown: Chicago, Ill.Connection to your teammate: Best FriendsCurrent occupation: Medical Device SalesDescribe what you do: I educate and sell medical device equipment to doctors. Favorite hobbies: Working out, traveling and shopping3 words to describe you: Competitive, driven and outgoing. What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? On my 18th birthday winning the showcase showdown on The Price Is Right!What famous person reminds you of yourself? Taylor SwiftWhat famous person reminds you of your teammate? Gisele BundchenWhat scares you most about traveling? Not being able to communicate in a foreign country or losing my passport. What excites you most about traveling? The adrenaline rush of always trying to make my flight! It’s somehow always a challengeBiggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: To combine Caitlin’s knowledgeable thought process and my quick decision-making skills. Pet peeve about your teammate: She’s dating my brother and sometimes she gives me too much information about him…enough said!What country and place would you most like to visit and why? Australia because I have always wanted to see the Sydney Opera House and immerse myself in their culture.What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other than winning one million bucks)? We both hope to prove to everyone that no matter what situation we are in, our competitive spirit and mental toughness will never be altered.

Photo Credit: Chris Lipson CBS

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

But after watching teams from Shana & Jennifer, to Marisa & Brooke, to Christie and Jodi, to Katie and Rachel, and finally Liz and Marie for the past ten seasons, I doubt they'll go far. But yes, we need another Dustin and Kandace!

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Soccer player, sorority sister say their contrasting personalities helped them on the show

Ever since the show first aired, Brittany Fletcher had made appearing on “The Amazing Race” part of her list of things to do before she died.

Now, Fletcher and Caitlin King, both graduates of Auburn University, will be checking that off as they compete as one of 11 teams on the new season of the show, which premieres Sept. 30 on CBS. In the show, the duo traveled nearly 25,000 miles across nine countries and competed in a variety of different challenges for a chance to win $1 million.

Fletcher graduated from the university in 2009 with a degree in logistics, while King graduated in 2011 with a degree in early childhood special education. Outside the show, Fletcher works as a pharmaceutical sales representative at Horizon Pharma in Chicago and King lives in Atlanta, previously working as an after-school teacher in St. Louis, where she is originally from.

Speaking of their time at Auburn, King said there were certain things that she and Fletcher did not have in common. For one, King was a standout forward with the AU soccer team and Fletcher was an active member of the Phi Mu sorority. And despite having the same circle of friends, the two were not close.

“We’re really competitive girls, so we always knew who we were, but we didn’t want to get to know each other that well,” King said.

However, once King started dating Fletcher’s brother, Brian, a baseball player at AU, things began to change and the two became friends.

“We ended up finding out that we had a lot more in common than we thought and from that day on, we just continued growing in our friendship and it’s been great ever since,” King said.

Fletcher said the show, along with “The Price is Right,” had been on her “bucket list” of things to do before she died, so when the opportunity came to audition for the show, she took King along for the ride.

“I knew she (King) was the perfect partner because we are both so competitive,” Fletcher said. “I knew we would be a pretty solid team and a tough team to beat.”

King said she and Fletcher sent a video of themselves as part of the application process. After a week of interviews in Los Angeles and a month to go before the start of production, the two were informed that they would be part of the cast of the show’s new season.

“It was just really exciting,” King said.

Both Fletcher and King maintain that their contrasting personalities helped them compete in the show. Examples King gave of Fletcher’s strengths were her organization and keen sensibility, while King brought macromanagement skills to different situations.

“We knew how to manage our personalities to our best advantage,” King said.

Prior to the first day of shooting, Fletcher and King spent two and a half months training together by working out, studying geography, brushing up on common phrases in different languages, as well as watching past episodes of the show to get a feel for what to expect in the competition.

“If you were to show us an episode, we would probably know what season and episode it was from,” Fletcher said.

One particular team-building exercise Fletcher and King participated in was building a Lego set in a dark, noisy room while timing themselves.

“We knew we were going to be somewhere that was actually loud and noisy, where we would have to keep our calm and focus,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher said one of the more difficult parts of the show was where she and King would have to use maps and speak to people in other languages in order to complete a task, all without the use of a cellphone.

“You don’t realize how much you depend on being able to speak the same language with people,” Fletcher said. “You have to really rely on being able to ask local questions and finding people who could speak English.”

An aspect of the show that Fletcher and King did not anticipate was the number of friends they made from the different teams in the show that they will keep in touch with for a long time.

“It’s kind of a special bond that you get just being there all together, experiencing this thing as a family,” King said. “Even though we’re going as separate teams, you still have that bond that brings you together, just knowing that everyone’s having these emotions and going through the same kind of hardships and difficulties.”

Although the duo gave few details about what to expect on the show this season, they emphasized how excited they are to represent their alma mater on national television.

“There’s nothing better,” Fletcher said.

“The Amazing Race” has won the Emmy Award for “Outstanding Reality-Competition Program” eight times since its debut in 2001.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

am I the only person who doesn't recall seeing them at all at any point during the first episode except the team introductions/intro...?

I saw them a little at the eating roadblock and some more while they were searching for 'the lady with the abacus' & then running to the pitstop. But yeah, they got VERY little screen time and I hope they're not the Sandy & Jeremy 2.0 from this side.

Reality Fan Forum, where 'enthusiasm' is completely redefined as not meaning having an interest in and having something to say but as having to be completely positive even about aspects of something you disagree on. So both the fan and forum (discussion) aspects are prescribed/limited.

I liked the passion they had for the race but this is now The Amazing Taxi Race and it doesn't matter how good you are at tasks if you get bad taxis.

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Reality Fan Forum, where 'enthusiasm' is completely redefined as not meaning having an interest in and having something to say but as having to be completely positive even about aspects of something you disagree on. So both the fan and forum (discussion) aspects are prescribed/limited.

Another team fell victim to poor communication with their taxi driver on "The Amazing Race" this week, as blond besties Caitlin King and Brittany Fletcher were sent home in Indonesia. We talked to them about their final leg, what sparked the race-rage that had them screaming at their Indonesian driver for not speaking English, and how close they really were to staying in the show.

Bing: ‘The Amazing Race’ | Indonesia

MSN TV: So what went so wrong with the end of Sunday night's leg of the race?

Caitlin: We were just so confused why we couldn't get any sort of communication with this guy—no hand gestures, no nothing. It was frustrating. It felt like we were out of control. It had been a long long already, and we were obviously mentally worn out.

It looked like it began with the problem paying your first driver.

Brittany: We had been standing there for 15 minutes trying to pay that guy, and he didn't give us any hand gestures. Will and Gary were [so far behind us], and you see them come up—that shows you how long we were standing there.

Caitlin: It was baffling to us. We were trying to figure out how much we owed him. He was giving us nothing back, no sign, no number. On top of that, while we were trying to have a conversation all these locals were yelling. We had no idea what was going on. At one point he was like, 'It's free, it's free,' but if we had taken it as free we know we might have been penalized at the end for not paying him. It was just really frustrating and we were kind of lost.

Brittany: It wasn't like I jumped out of the [pedicab] yelling at him. It'd been a long time.

Photos: Meet the teams

Do you feel like you could have strategized differently or was this just bad luck?

Brittany: If we'd been at a challenge where we obviously couldn't do something we would have regretted taking that task. But we were showing him the cross streets and then he'd take us a different route and he had no idea where he was going. It's hard to say you would have done anything differently. We'd done the best we could. We had been right with the twins at the train station—

Really?

Brittany: I think we actually beat them to the train station.

It didn't seem that way from the episode.

Caitlin: We were neck and neck. They made it look like it was just the twins, and they almost made it, but actually the train had gone by the time we got there. We got there at, like, 7:34 and the train left at 7:35.

Brittany: It was one of those things where it's our of your control. We knocked the Roadblock out in five minutes. We just had a day of bad drivers.

What was it like being in the pedicab race right at the end with Will and Gary?

Caitlin: It was just a rush of emotion—we didn't know there were going to be right in front of us. We were trying to keep uiet and then take off. It would have worked for us if he hadn't turned left at the fork in the road.

Brittany: We really thought we had the advantage because our driver had actually taken us to the Pitstop about 45 minutes prior [while we were lost.] But it didn't work out.

It sounds like you had a really tough exit. Does that spoil the experience of being in the race?

Caitlin: Definitely not. It was a great experience—at the end of the day, we're getting the opportunity to travel around the world for free and meet all these great new people. Of course, we're competitive and we wanted the million dollars—but 15 years from now, is it really going to matter?